Now, we know you’ve already got wireless network equipment in your car — no doubt, cellphones are coming with you when you drive or ride. But in fact, wireless is being built right into cars. Some cars come with cellphones built into them. They also are sporting new wireless telematics systems, such as OnStar, www.onstar.com, which connect your car to a satellite and cellphone network to provide services like remote door unlocking and acci- dent reporting. Telematics services are generally proprietary and not all that “open” to uses outside of their specific service plans. But some network connections that you can build into your car let you do your own thing, such as ߜ Wi-Fi: A lot of car manufacturers are developing “connected” cars that can use Wi-Fi for a variety of information and entertainment purposes. You don’t have to wait for them, though — in Chapter 11, we talk about how to do this yourself. Imagine updating your car MP3 and video files wirelessly every time you park in the garage! ߜ Bluetooth: In the world of Bluetooth, car manufacturers have gone beyond planning and are already offering Bluetooth-enabled cars. If you want the ultimate in integrated cellphone systems in your car, you need to go Bluetooth — you don’t even have to take your phone out of your briefcase to accept phone calls. In Chapter 11, we also talk about how you can add Bluetooth to your existing car. (Look, now we’re saving you the car payments you would incur by upgrading! WNH&M For Dummies can pay for itself in savings!) On planes Nope, we aren’t making this one up (although you probably won’t be installing this one yourself). Airlines, aircraft manufacturers (Boeing in particular), and networking equipment vendors have begun to install wireless hot spots in air- liners. It’s not cheap (nearly $30 a flight at present), but it’s immeasurably cool. Imagine checking your e-mail, surfing the Web, or even having an iChat AV video conference at 35,000 feet! To Wireless Infinity and Beyond! Wireless does NOT stop here. Literally thousands of engineers worldwide are working on wireless technologies of all sorts. In this chapter, we’ve already discussed one emerging technology that’s going to make your wireless net- works all the more powerful — UWB. 21 Chapter 1: Wireless Inside Everything! 05_595830_ch01.qxd 8/26/05 7:55 PM Page 21 Here are a few trends that we think will make all wireless networks faster, cheaper, more reliable, and just plain better over the next few years: ߜ UWB: This technology has a lot of promise, but also some challenges. The promise is to move beyond the ultra short-range “connector cable” replacement being promised for first-generation UWB systems (replacing things like the cables between a DVD player and a TV) and to extend throughout the home with super high-speed (hundreds of megabytes per second). The challenge revolves around some competing groups of technology companies — at least two different groups want to “own” the standard for UWB — and this competition is causing a Betamax versus VHS-style war. We won’t know for a while how this will turn out, but we still maintain high hopes for UWB. ߜ Wireless USB: If UWB doesn’t pan out, one reason may be that the infighting between the different groups hasn’t been resolved before a working wireless USB standard has been put into place. A bunch of com- panies are working on this technology, which extends USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) beyond the cable and into the airwaves. If it works out, USB may beat out UWB in the battle of TLAs (three-letter acronyms). ߜ 802.11somethingnew: The 802.11 technologies (also known as Wi-Fi) are ruling the roost of wireless networks today. Hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi–enabled devices have been built in the past few years, and Wi-Fi is still going strong. Many pundits wonder, however, if the technology will be overcome by newer technologies like WiMax or UWB, with their longer range (WiMax) or higher speeds (UWB). That isn’t beyond the realm of possibility, but we have a sneaking suspicion that the next few generations of 802.11 (like the forthcoming 802.11n, which we discuss in Chapter 2) will keep the technology in its current leading position. ߜ Software-defined radios: This isn’t a specific wireless standard or system (like Wi-Fi or UWB), but instead a really cool underlying technol- ogy. Most wireless gear today uses hardware that is purpose-built to work with one or another kind of radio signal. Software-defined radios (SDRs), however, are more general-purpose, with software allowing the same bit of radio hardware to work with completely different radio fre- quencies, transmission standards, data compression methods, and the like. SDR is a big focus for the defense industry, where it might reduce the huge number of radios that the military needs to load onto Hummers, tanks, planes, and ships. If you’re in the military, this will be handy — if you’re not, don’t fear, as the technology should quickly cross over to civilian wireless networking uses quickly. How could it be used? Suppose your cellphone radio worked with your cell company, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other signals, depending on what application you were running. That would cut costs and improve your ability to enhance your phone over time without doing a “trash can upgrade,” which is what we call upgrading by buying a new cellphone. 22 Part I: Making Your World Wireless 05_595830_ch01.qxd 8/26/05 7:55 PM Page 22 Chapter 2 Wireless Network Basics In This Chapter ᮣ Dealing with acronyms a-go-go ᮣ Figuring out the speeds and feeds ᮣ Staying secure ᮣ Peering into the standards crystal ball A s much as it pains us to tell you this, we really have to get this out of the way: If you’re going to get into wireless networking, you’re going to have to spend at least some time digging into (and figuring out) wireless standards and protocols (which are commonly agreed-upon specifications for how wire- less network devices communicate with each other). Like many other computer and networking-related systems, wireless networks rely on these standards to ensure that disparate pieces and parts work together smoothly. These standards are part of everyone’s daily life — ranging from the standards that make your HDTV work to standards that underlie the Internet itself. Most of the time, you can safely ignore the standards and just assume that they are there, working in the background for you (when was the last time you had to worry about your long distance provider’s implementation of MGCP in their interoffice switching?). But when it comes to designing, choos- ing components for, building, and operating a wireless network, standards come to the fore. Introducing the 802.11s Most of the wireless networks we discuss throughout WNH&M For Dummies are based upon a set of standards (called 802.11, explained below) set by a group called the IEEE (or Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers — insiders call them the “I triple E”). The IEEE is one of the three main groups in the networking industry that create standards governing how different pieces of networked equipment talk to each other (the other two are the ITU, or 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 23 International Telecommunications Union, and the IETF, or Internet Engineering Task Force). The IEEE’s 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee has a large task force of engi- neers (who don’t work for the IEEE itself, but instead are employees of various technical companies who make software, computer chips, and networking equipment) working on various LAN (local area network) and MAN (metropoli- tan area network) issues. Each of these issues has its own working groups — including (pay attention to this one!) the 802.11 Working Group, which is focused on wireless LANs. Within 802.11 (which is the overarching wireless LAN working group) are a number of smaller working groups, each of which is identified by a letter appended to the end of the 802.11 name — for example, 802.11b (we added the italic for emphasis). These working groups are tasked with developing specific enhancements and variants to the basic 802.11 standards. Why are we bothering to tell you all of this? For several reasons: ߜ If you haven’t already, you will hear some of these 802.11 terms as you move forward with your wireless LAN. We guarantee it. You can build a simple wireless LAN without knowing all of this stuff, but as you get more complex, 802.11 something-or-other pops up. ߜ 802.11 and wireless networks in general are constantly moving forward. Knowing the 802.11 variants (and we talk not only about current varia- tions, but also future ones) keeps you in the loop. ߜ If you know about the IEEE and the 802.11 working group, you can keep track of all this online. Most of the (admittedly very technical) docu- ments of the various 802.11 working groups are available online at the following URL: http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/ Beyond the IEEE, another group is “watching over” wireless LAN standards — the Wi-Fi Alliance (discussed later in this chapter in the section titled “Oh my, Wi-Fi”). These folks are responsible for testing and certifying interoperability between vendors — in other words, making sure things actually work in the real world. Easy as a, b, g The IEEE has a lot of 802.11 working groups, and therefore a lot of 802.11 some- thing standards. But at the most basic, you absolutely need to know something about only three of them to build and operate your wireless LAN. These are 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a — the three current standards for the physical layer (PHY) of the network. 24 Part I: Making Your World Wireless 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 24 The physical layer is one part (Layer 1) of the seven-layer OSI networking model, which defines everything from the physical media to the applications in a network. If you’re curious, you can learn more about the OSI model at the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model The physical layer defines how the bits and bytes of data are transferred to and from the physical medium of the network — in this case, the electromag- netic spectrum (or radio waves) of the wireless LAN. The physical layer stan- dard defines all of the important details of how your wireless network takes the data you’re sending across it and converts it to the radio waves that bounce around your home. This physical layer process is really a basic underlying task in a wireless network — two pieces of wireless networking gear can “talk” with each other only if they share a common physical layer implementation. The three 802.11 standards that are used for nearly all wireless LAN gear you can buy today (802.11a/b/g) each use different PHYs. The PHYs in 802.11b and g systems use the same spectrum (or range of radio frequencies) — in the 2.4 GHz band — whereas 802.11a uses a different set of frequencies in the 5 GHz band. This means that 802.11b and g systems have at least a fighting chance of talking to each other in a network (and in fact, they can talk to each other), but neither of these systems can connect to an 802.11a system. 25 Chapter 2: Wireless Network Basics Your wireless friend — the electromagnetic spectrum Nothing is more fundamental to the concept of wireless networking than the electromagnetic spectrum — the radio waves that carry signals around your house, your neighborhood, or even your town. Understanding a little bit about this concept can be very useful as you think about wireless networks. A warning: We aren’t physics instructors, and we’re not trying to help your SAT scores here — just a little high-level overview is all we want to provide. The electromagnetic spectrum is simply a con- tinuum of electromagnetic radiation ranging from low-frequency radio waves on up to x-rays and gamma rays, encompassing electrical power, radio waves, and even light waves. Any particu- lar spot on this spectrum is defined by its wave- length and frequency — two characteristics that are actually tightly related (longer wavelengths have lower frequencies). A big chunk of the middle of the electromagnetic spectrum (from about 3 to 30 billion hertz — Hz, a measure of frequency) is the radio frequency spectrum. All of the wireless networking gear we discuss in this book uses radio frequencies to communicate — and all of the gear is somehow defined by, or limited to, a specific smaller range of frequencies (called a band or channel). 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 25 Even if two PHYs use the same spectrum (as do 802.11b and 802.11g), there’s no guarantee that they are compatible and can “network” with each other. In the case of 802.11g and b, the engineers deliberately made decisions to allow this. If the concept of spectrum is a bit alien to you, read the sidebar titled “Your wireless friend — the electromagnetic spectrum” to get yourself up to speed. 802.11b: The old standby When wireless networks hit the big-time a few years ago, it was in the form of networking equipment conforming to the 802.11b standard. You can really think of 802.11b as the baseline for wireless LANs — the lowest (but not least) common denominator. Most wireless LANs you run into (at the office, in your friend’s home, at a coffee shop, or other hot spot) are 802.11b-based. So what’s 802.11b all about? We’ve already mentioned that it uses spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band, which is an unlicensed band (the government — in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC — won’t require you to get a radio operator’s license like a ham radio operator to use these fre- quencies). This means that anyone can use equipment that operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency range without asking permission from anyone. The people who build the equipment used in wireless networks do have to get permission — or approval — from the FCC (and other regulatory bodies in other countries) to ensure that their equipment works within the “rules.” Basically, these certifications verify that the equipment doesn’t crank out too much power or stray too much onto other frequencies. When you see wire- less network accessories (such as antennas) that are marketed specifically for certain pieces of equipment and not for general use, it’s usually because those are the only devices for which the accessory has been certified. The fact that 2.4 GHz is an unlicensed band is good for you because you can build a wireless network without any interference from the Man, but it’s also (potentially, at least) bad because everyone around you can do the same thing. And not just wireless networks use the 2.4 GHz band — cordless tele- phones, Bluetooth systems, baby monitors, wireless speaker systems, and other devices use it too. All of which adds up to spectrum scarcity (in other words, a situation where radio signals interfere with each other). 802.11b defines more than just the frequencies used for the wireless LAN. It also defines how those radio waves behave. In particular, 802.11b adopted a system called DSSS (or direct sequence spread spectrum). In a DSSS system, the radio spectrum is divided up into a number of channels. The wireless net- working gear uses a single one of those channels to transmit and receive data. A competing system (known as frequency hopping spread spectrum — FHSS, if you feel like getting fancy) divides up the spectrum into a larger 26 Part I: Making Your World Wireless 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 26 number of smaller channels and uses them all (no surprise here), hopping from frequency to frequency. The very first wireless LAN systems (just plain 802.11 — no b, a, or g — LANs, which you never run into these days) could use either of these two modula- tion techniques. (Modulation is the technical word for describing how the data is added to the radio waves — demodulation is the reverse process, where radio waves are turned back into data packets. Modem stands for modulate/ demodulate.) Generally speaking, DSSS was faster, whereas FHSS was more immune to interference. As the folks at the IEEE worked on developing a standard that was faster than the very slow first generation 802.11 wireless LANs, they benefited from advances in engineering that let them have the best of both worlds — DSSS systems that were faster than FHSS, but nearly as immune to interference. This advance was a modulation scheme known as CCK (complementary code keying). The 802.11b system with CCK modulation has a theoretical maximum speed of 11 Mbps — as fast as the 10 Mbps Ethernet networks used by many homes and small businesses at the time (the late 1990s). The real throughput (or actual speed) of any wireless LAN system is less than the maximum speed of the standard. Most 802.11b networks max out at about 5 Mbps in real throughput. This is faster than the Internet connections in most homes, but not really fast enough to handle bandwidth-intensive net- work applications such as music and video. Part II of WNH&M For Dummies focuses on how to get your real throughput as close to the theoretical maxi- mum as you can. The DSSS modulation used for 802.11b divides the 2.4 GHz frequency spec- trum into 14 total channels — when you set up your wireless network, you can manually set which of these channels you want to use (or let the equip- ment do the choosing itself, automatically). In the U.S., only 11 of these 14 channels can be used (1–11) due to FCC regula- tions. Some other countries are similarly restricted. Because most of our read- ers are in the U.S. (as are we — and all the equipment we use, for that matter), we refer to channels 1 to 11 throughout the book. If you live elsewhere, you’re not missing out on anything — but just check with your equipment vendor and local wireless experts to find out exactly which channels you can use! Although 11 (or 14, if you’re lucky enough to be able to use all the channels) seems like a pretty good number of choices, it’s actually a relatively limited number because the channels are overlapping. Each channel is defined by its center frequency (like 2.412 GHz, for channel 1), and each channel assignment is 5 MHz apart (so channel 2 is 2.417 GHz). The problem arises from the fact that each channel is about 22 MHz wide (11 MHz on either side of the center frequency). This means that signals in channel 1 are actually using some of the same radio frequencies as channels 2, 3, 4, and even 5. 27 Chapter 2: Wireless Network Basics 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 27 Figure 2-1 shows this phenomenon graphically. In an 802.11b radio system, only three channels (channels 1, 6, and 11) are non-overlapping or completely incapable of interfering with each other. If you’re using multiple access points (if this term is unfamiliar to you, we talk about the different pieces and parts of wireless networks in Chapter 3), or if you’re in a crowded location like an office, dorm, or apartment where other people’s networks may be within a few hundred feet of each other, this can be an issue. We deal with the issue in Chapter 5. 802.11g systems, which we discuss in the very next section, use the same channel assignments and therefore suffer from the very same problem. To sum things up, 802.11b ߜ Uses the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum ߜ Contains 14 total channels (11 can be used in the U.S.) ߜ Has only three channels that are non-overlapping ߜ Uses the CCK variant of DSSS modulation ߜ Has maximum speeds of 11 Mbps ߜ Has real-world speeds (throughput) of no more than about 5 Mbps 802.11g: The new champ 802.11b, as we mentioned earlier, works pretty well when it’s connected to a cable or DSL modem that maxes out at 2 or 3 Mbps — even a pokey (in the absolute sense) 4 Mbps network connection can handle Internet sharing for your home or small office. But as soon as you start getting a bit more complex than that — trying to, for example, stream a video file from your PC to your TV, or even just trying to access your iTunes music store purchases from another computer on your 1234567 Channels 8 9 10 11 13 14 22 MHz 2.402 GHz 2.483 GHz 12 Figure 2-1: Channels in an 802.11b system step on each other’s feet. 28 Part I: Making Your World Wireless 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 28 network — 802.11b starts to come up a bit short. The folks who make wire- less gear (and the folks at the IEEE who come up with new standards) all realized that something faster and more capable of handling advanced net- working applications was in order, so they stirred their cauldrons and brewed up 802.11g. 802.11g is nothing more or less, when you get down to the essence of it, than a new, improved, fancier, souped-up version of 802.11b. 802.11g uses the same frequencies — the 2.4 GHz band — and the same channel assignments (with the same overlaps and same three non-overlapping channels). 802.11g even includes the DSSS and CCK modulation from 802.11b — which means that any 802.11g system is backwards-compatible with 802.11b and fits per- fectly into any 802.11b network. The reverse is also true — 802.11b systems can be used in an 802.11g net- work, but in almost all cases, this slows down the 802.11g network to 802.11b speeds. Typically, the 802.11g clients and access points slow down to a lower speed (like 22 Mbps) while still allowing the 802.11b clients to operate on the network — with some APs you can configure the AP to not allow the 802.11b clients on the network in order to maintain the highest possible speeds. The real breakthrough for 802.11g is a new modulation scheme known as OFDM, or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Orthogonal is a mathe- matics term that relates to things being at right angles — or, more generally, refers to things that are independent and well-separated. In the wireless world, this means that the data is sent across the airwaves in a series of well- separated frequency modulations that, in essence, can be jam-packed into the airwaves but still distinct enough to be demodulated at the far end. The net result is a much greater amount of data being sent across the wire- less network — five times as much data can be sent simultaneously across an 802.11g network as can travel across an 802.11b one. That’s a big deal if you’re trying to send audio signals — or the home movie you just created in iMovie — across the network in real time. Of course, as with 802.11b — and all wireless networks — there’s a difference between the theoretical maximum (in this case, 54 Mbps) and the actual throughput you get in the real world. It’s not unreasonable to expect upwards of 20 Mbps throughput in an 802.11g network — which gives you enough bandwidth to handle even an HDTV channel’s worth of data. The combination of backwards compatibility and significantly higher throughput have made 802.11g the top dog of the wireless world today. Most of the wireless LAN gear you can buy today (or that you might get “included” with devices such as digital media adapters) uses 802.11g. 29 Chapter 2: Wireless Network Basics 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 29 802.11a: Still hanging in there The limited number of non-interfering channels (just three of them!), when combined with the large amount of gear (like cordless phones) can cause 802.11b and g networks to face interference that causes decreased range (meaning that users have to stay close to the base station or access point) and poor performance. One way of getting around this issue is to use a different, less crowded set of frequencies. That’s exactly what systems based on the 802.11a standard do — they move from the crowded city streets of the 2.4 GHz band on out to the rel- atively unexplored frontier of the U-NII (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure) band. U-NII is in the 5 GHz range of frequency spectrum, where relatively few other devices operate (a few cordless phones are the only devices operating at this frequency that we’ve seen on the marketplace). Besides having few other devices contending for scarce spectrum, the U-NII band has the big advantage of just being a bigger chunk of frequencies than the 2.4 GHz band used for 802.11b and g. This provides some big benefits: ߜ More room for data on each channel — the channels assigned in 802.11a are “bigger” (they use a wider swath of frequencies) than those in 802.11b or g. ߜ There are more channels — 14 versus 11 (although 4 are designated for outdoor use). ߜ Most importantly, there are more non-overlapping channels than 802.11b and g — 8 versus 3. This leaves you with a much lower chance of interference and, typically, greater throughput. So 802.11a wireless LANs — which, by the way, use the same OFDM modulation scheme as do 802.11g LANs — can reach maximum speeds of 54 Mbps (the same as 802.11g), and in the real world, often reach speeds in the vicinity of 30 Mbps. This makes 802.11a networks the fastest for many folks. Figure 2-2 shows the channels in 802.11a. So what’s the downside? Why aren’t we all using 802.11a? The biggest reason is inertia — 802.11a is not compatible with 802.11b, and therefore won’t work with a lot of the legacy wireless network equipment found in homes, offices, and public locations throughout the world. 802.11g does provide this compat- ibility, which makes it a safer choice. As we discuss in Chapter 3, where we talk about choosing equipment, many wireless networking devices these days are dual mode and can support both 802.11g and 802.11a. (Many vendors advertise these as 802.11a/b/g access points.) 30 Part I: Making Your World Wireless 06_595830_ch02.qxd 8/26/05 7:46 PM Page 30 [...]...Chapter 2: Wireless Network Basics Figure 2- 2: 8 02. 11a’s channels are a lot less crammed together 5180 520 0 522 0 524 0 526 0 528 0 5300 5 320 The other reason why 8 02. 11a has been less popular than 8 02. 11b and g has to do with range If you think back to your physics classes in college and high school, you... Look for a logo like the one in Figure 2- 3 Figure 2- 3: Look for the Wi-Fi label when you want compatibility you can count on Throughout WNH&M For Dummies, we often use the term Wi-Fi ourselves, if for no other reason than we hate typing “8 02. 11a, b, and g” over and over Chapter 2: Wireless Network Basics Get an “i” for security The biggest advantage of wireless networks — the fact that you don’t have... World Wireless Network interface adapters for client stations In order to take part in a wireless network, each station on the network needs to be able to send and receive the wireless radio signals To do this, each needs a radio, which is usually found in a network interface card or adapter In the typical home wireless network, laptop computers use a slide-in wireless card, and PCs a USB wireless network. .. your network carries the same priority, no matter what type of traffic it is This isn’t really a problem for most data applications, such as e-mail and Web surfing, but it can be a real issue for multimedia uses of the Chapter 2: Wireless Network Basics network such as audio, video and voice As you’ll see throughout WNH&M For Dummies, these multimedia applications are where all the cool wireless networking... root of wireless network s biggest Achilles heel: security We won’t get into the who, what, where, why, and whens here, but suffice to say that wireless networks can’t be contained inside your house or office the way that a wired network can Every time you turn on your wireless network, consider it the equivalent of having a network outlet for a wired network out in the front lawn, available for all... standards for Wi-Fi networks in this chapter at a very general level We’re not talking about how to secure your network in detail — that’s something that we discuss in detail in our other wireless book, Wireless Home Networking For Dummies, also published by Wiley You should also consult your equipment’s user’s manuals to figure out how to implement security in your network The original 8 02. 11b networks... piece of wireless LAN gear was tested and proven to work with any other piece of equipment with the same certification The original Wi-Fi certifications were for 8 02. 11b equipment, but the Alliance now does certifications for not just 8 02. 11b, but also for 8 02. 11a and g equipment, as well as for wireless security protocols (see the section later in this chapter titled, “Get an “i” for security,” for more... problem, with standards efforts to add QoS mechanisms into wireless LAN gear Like the 8 02. 11i/WPA efforts we discussed in the previous section, these efforts are designed to work with rather than replace existing wireless LAN standards like 8 02. 11a/b/g Two related QoS efforts are in place, one you can use today, and one that you have to wait for: ߜ 8 02. 11e: This is the IEEE standard for Wi-Fi QoS As we write,... gear within an 8 02. 11b network (like going to a coffee shop that offers wireless Internet access), you’re probably better off with an 8 02. 11g network On the other hand, if you have a lot of interference issues (with an existing or older wireless LAN, or with your 2. 4 GHz phone system), you might want to try 8 02. 11a 31 32 Part I: Making Your World Wireless If you are considering 8 02. 11a, our advice... the same type of network (for example, between the wireless network in your home and the separate wireless network in your guest house/garage/studio/pool cabana/what have you) In a simple wireless network, the only bridge is the access point itself As your wireless network gets more complex and expands, however, you may find a need to — sorry, we can’t help ourselves — build bridges! Wireless bridges . your 2. 4 GHz phone system), you might want to try 8 02. 11a. 5180 520 0 522 0 524 0 526 0 528 0 5300 5 320 Figure 2- 2: 8 02. 11a’s channels are a lot less crammed together. 31 Chapter 2: Wireless Network. your 123 4567 Channels 8 9 10 11 13 14 22 MHz 2. 4 02 GHz 2. 483 GHz 12 Figure 2- 1: Channels in an 8 02. 11b system step on each other’s feet. 28 Part I: Making Your World Wireless 06_595830_ch 02. qxd. choos- ing components for, building, and operating a wireless network, standards come to the fore. Introducing the 8 02. 11s Most of the wireless networks we discuss throughout WNH&M For Dummies are